Page 35 of Unraveling Fate

“So, if not Canon, is there someone else?”

Cadenza punched the code into the garage keypad, and the door rolled away revealing the Ferrari. She gave it an affectionate pat on the way to the stairs. “Just this handsome guy.”

“Aw, no.” Reyna grinned at her. “That sounds like denial to me. Who is he?”

Cadenza dropped her keys trying to open the apartment door. “Who’s who?”

Reyna crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe. “Listen to you. ‘Who’s who?’ Ha! It’s all over your face. Come on, spill the tea.”

Cadenza glanced at Reyna from where she knelt to retrieve her keys, sure the blacksmith must be mocking her. No one had ever actually said “spill the tea” to her before. Like a friend. She stood slowly, taking in Reyna’s open smile.

“The tea?” She unlocked the door and led Reyna into the living room where she had her keyboard set up. “The ‘tea’ is named Taran and is meeting me this evening for…a date?”

“Ok, ok,” Reyna said. “Now we’re getting there. Why is ‘date’ a question?”

“I mean, he didn’t actually say ‘date.’ He just asked me if I was free tonight. I don’t even know what we’re going to do.”

Reyna clapped her hands. “A surprise date, even better! You’ll have to tell me all about it tomorrow.”

Cadenza smiled slowly, relaxing. “What about you? Are you seeing anybody?”

Reyna pulled a binder out of her bag and flipped to their music. “I’m crushing on this one guy, Noah. We’ve been out a few times, but we’ll see how it goes.”

She wiggled her shoulders and sat next to Cadenza on the piano bench to fill her in. Reyna’s enthusiasm for Noah made Cadenza giggle. Part of her wondered if this is what other women did with their sisters growing up. Share secrets. Laugh.

“I guess we better actually sing, huh?” Reyna jostled Cadenza with an elbow. Light string music plucked its way over her skin and Cadenza caught her breath. Right. She’d been so distracted by the thought she might be making an actual female friend, she’d forgotten said female friend was the second person she’d ever heard music from. At all. In her life.

“Oh, yeah.” Cadenza checked the time on her phone, hoping she hadn’t taken too long to answer. The piano bench wasn’t that big. She could contrive to touch Reyna again while they sang to test out the music. Make sure it wasn’t a fluke. “I have a girl coming for a voice lesson at two.”

“Uh-huh,” Reyna smirked. “And then you have the rest of the afternoon to count down. Is that what was going on when I got here? Canon trying to convince you to let him help you pass the rest of the afternoon?”

Cadenza’s smile faded as she remembered her conversation in the showroom.

Two weeks.

She sighed. She’d need the next two weeks to go as slowly as the rest of today if she hoped to earn the money in time.

The F12’s engineexploded to life, echoing off the walls of the garage. Cadenza drank it in while the Gaelic melody of the car coursed through the metal frame.

“Three more hours to kill.” She stroked the steering wheel. “You wanna run, bello?”

The track stretched deserted in the late evening sun. Cadenza slipped on her sunglasses against the light lancing off the asphalt and double checked the stands. No Canon on his phone this time.

Not that she was going to let the music lead again. Not after last time. The earthsong rose at that thought like a child testing the rules. A drone hummed from the ground and vibrated up her spine. The Berlinetta’s melody jumped into the mix, shivering through her chest.

Cadenza ground her teeth and tightened her control.No.She shifted gears, and the Ferrari shot down the straightaway, the music subsiding. Cadenza’s thoughts, however, refused to be so easily shut down.

Two weeks.

Two people.

During rehearsal, she’d brushed up against Reyna’s bare arm several times and each time brought the string song. But only when she touched her. If she wasn’t in contact with her skin, Cadenza heard nothing. And when she did touch her skin, Reyna’s music sounded on the same level as the rest of the world’s music. Only Taran’s drums rocked through her like an earthquake.

Or,she snarked,maybe I should say Reyna’s music is the same volume as the rest of the earthsong when it isn’t trying to either swamp me or disappear entirely.

She pushed the Ferrari faster. She didn’t need any of this. She was here to get money, get to Italy, and get her mother to admit she was as good a singer as Ilaria or her sisters. She didn’t need any more evidence to add to her mother’s accusation that she was pazza. Crazy.

Singing dandelions.